Glendowie Primary School Newsletter Term 4: Week 5

Glendowie Primary School
Newsletter
Term 4: Week 5
Friday 14th November 2014
Newsletter proudly sponsored by:
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IMPORTANT DATES, TERM 4 2014
th
Tuesday
18 November
Thursday
20th November
Saturday
22nd November
Tuesday
25th November
Thursday
27th November
Tuesday
2nd December
Thursday
4th December
Friday
5th December
Thursday
Friday
Thursday
Tuesday
Tuesday
11th December
12th December
18th December
27th January 2015
3rd February 2015
Year 7 trip to Kelly Tarltons
Bay Suburbs Athletics Competition Year 5-6
Lewis Eady Performance 1.30pm in the mini hall
PA Meeting 7.30pm in the staffroom
Glendowie School Fair 10am-2pm
Year 3 trip to the Zoo
Year 8 Girls Immunisation Catchup
Board Meeting 6.30pm in the Boardroom
Eastern Zone Athletics Competition Year 7-8
Year 1 – 4 school athletics day
Year 6 Road Patrol trip to Rainbows End
ESOL afternoon tea (Y5-8)
Y0-4 end of year Bible Assembly 9am in the hall
Lunchtime Librarian Trip
Year 8 Leaving Assembly 1.30pm in the school hall
School Reports sent home
Last Day of School. School finishes at 2pm
School lists on display
First Day of School Term 1 2015
GLENDOWIE SCHOOL FAIR Saturday 22nd NOVEMBER 2014 10am-2pm
Thank you to our headline sponsor of our school fair:
Vanessa Mowlem from Bayleys, St Heliers.
On top of her sponsorship, Vanessa has kindly offered to personally donate $1000 to Glendowie Primary
School for every property that is listed and successfully sold in 2014.
All you need to do is mention our school fair.
Contact Vanessa call 021 840 700 or email: vanessa.mowlem@bayleys.co.nz
Top 10% Award Bayleys Salespeople Nationwide
Top Agent for Bayleys in St Heliers 2010/2011/2012/2013
Top 10% Award Bayleys Salespeople Nationwide
50 Million Dollar Award 2011 / 87.5% Success Rate at Auction
Language learning
Official Language of New Zealand (Maori)
All our classes learn te reo Maori and nga tikanga (Maori traditions and culture.) We are committed to
continuing to teach Maori as an official language of NZ and the Board will continue to fund this programme.
International Language
As part of our charter questionnaire last year a number of parents asked about reviewing the choice of the
International Language that we will teach at Glendowie in the future.
Please could you assist us in this decision making? We will use these findings to help us decide the future
direction that we will take, together with the information and data we have collected around a number of areas.
These will include:
1. Funding initiatives from the Ministry of Education towards learning certain languages
2. The languages taught at our local high schools in order to ensure that our students can strengthen their
language knowledge with further studies
3. Opportunities that the local high schools may offer accelerant classes for students who have studied a
particular language for a number of years at their primary school levels
4. The resourcing and support that can be given to us around partnerships with organisations supporting
language learning
5. The ways we can link an International language into our Units of inquiry within authentic contexts
6. The benefits learning a particular language may have with NZ interactions with countries around our
economy and export industries
7. An understanding of languages and cultures that are evidenced within our Auckland community
8. Opportunities to strengthen our partnerships with cluster schools around language learning
9. Opportunities to source language teachers and language support people as Native teachers
Additional Information
1. All PYP schools must teach a language from Year 3-8.
2. All NZ schools are required to offer opportunities for learning a second or subsequent language in years
7-10
3. Glendowie Primary Board of trustees fund the teaching of Maori as our NZ language and also our
International language
4. The languages taught at Glendowie College in Year 9 are French, German and Mandarin ( Chinese)
5. Learning an International Language can help us learn about our heritage and it can also bring
employment and business opportunities.
6. We have been learning an International language in Year 3-8 from 2006
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Survey Questions. Please e mail responses to office @glendowie.school.nz or send this information to the class
teacher or to the school office by Thursday the 20th of November. Thank you for your support.
1. Which International Language would you like your child/ ren to learn?
-------------------------------------------2. Which International language is the most important language for our children to learn in terms of
importance for NZ’s future?
-------------------------------------------Comment (Optional)
News from the Principal
Dear Parents,
Thank you for your continuing support and the many positive comments we receive from you and also visitors
to the school.
You will see by the information below that our decile has changed from decile 9 to decile 10. We are continually
challenged with our budget to provide 21st century learning opportunities for our students in a wonderfully
resourced modern learning environment. Our decile change will challenge us to find additional funds in the
future.
The voluntary donations are one such area that we hope our parents will support us with. We still are only
collecting about 65% of the voluntary donations which doesn't compare well with many other schools in the
district. It would be great if all families could give some voluntary donation amount which they feel within their
own personal finances that they could prioritise to their children's primary education. Thank you so much to the
73% of families who have made some sort of contribution to the voluntary donation. We are extremely grateful.
Urgent Help Please: Our fair committee, led by Catherine Duffy and Karyn Berman, have been doing a
magnificent job towards readiness for the fair. They recognise the fair needs to be a whole community
commitment in order for it to be successful and for the proceeds to go to resource the school.
WE DESPERATELY NEED PARENTS TO VOLUNTEER TO HELP AT THE FAIR ON SATURDAY 22ND NOVEMBER. Please
see the PA notoces in this newsletter for contact details.
Thanks for your considerations around supporting our school. I look forward to seeing children and families at
the fair, it is going to be a fabulous day for our community.
Board of Trustees Meeting: Our next meeting is Tuesday 25th November at 6.30pm in the Boardroom. Everyone
is welcome to attend. Copies of the agenda are available from the office on the Friday prior to the meeting.
School Decile
There has been a lot of publicity in the news recently regarding the changing of decile ratings for schools. The
Ministry have advised that we are now a decile 10 school.
The Decile rating of a school indicates the extent to which it draws its students from low socio-economic
communities. Decile 1 schools are the 10 percent of schools with the highest proportion of students from low
socio-economic communities, whereas decile 10 schools are the 10 percent of schools with the lowest
proportion of these students.
The lower a school’s decile rating, the more decile-based funding it gets. We estimate that we will lose funding
of approx. $18,000 per annum based on our current roll. The Board will be working hard to find ways to balance
the budget with this shortfall in income.
A decile does not indicate the overall socio-economic mix of the students attending a school or measure the
standard of education delivered at a school.
Enviro Group
The Enviro Group has been busy planting and transplanting seeds / seedlings ready to sell at the School Fair. We
are now looking for donations of other plants / cuttings / potted shrubs to sell on the day. If you have any
'plant' donations please bring them to school next week - they will be stored near the glasshouse. We do have
pots at school if you send the cuttings.
Class Lists
Class lists for 2015 will be displayed at school from Tuesday 27th January, a week before school starts. If you
have a child in year 0 to year 7 who IS NOT returning to our school in 2015, please could you let the office know.
2014 Intermediate Year Book
The Year 7/8 Media Team have been busy creating the 2014 Intermediate Yearbook. There are pages on
everything from sports events to leadership roles and more. Students and parents will be able to order one or
more of the 2014 yearbooks from next week. There will be copies of previous yearbooks in the office to view
from next week. The cost will be $15 per yearbook.
Group Visit Homestay Accomodation – Please can you help?
Next year, we will have a group of 12 students (girls and boys Yr.3 – Yr.8) visiting from China. They will be here
for two weeks from the 4th -17th February 2015. All the children attend an English language school and we
expect their level of English to be fairly good. Please could you advise me through the Office if you are able and
willing to have one or two short term home-stay students. Students can have a single room or you can also put 2
International students in a room. Each student pays $265 a week and the host family supplies 3 meals a day.
We will also require a home stay for one teacher who is fluent in English (also $265.00 per week).
Their stay will cover two weekends (first weekend includes Waitangi Day). An excursion has been planned for
them on one of the days of the first weekend and for the second weekend they are being taken on a tour.
The school really values the opportunity to have groups of students as it is a great experience for us as an
International IB School to welcome students from overseas schools. It is also very good revenue for the school
which allows us to increase our quality resources, employ additional teachers, and have classes with lower
teacher student ratios. Please can you urgently advise us whether you would be willing to have 1 or 2 students.
Ride to Conquer Cancer
We are thrilled that Team GPS has now raised over $15,000 for the ride, and so we are able to have 6 riders
taking part this weekend. Good luck to Mr Kloppers, Ms Sinclair, Mrs Blair, Mr Shroff, Mr Edmondson and Ms
Jones as they take part in the 200km ride this weekend, and to the 7 staff members who are also attending the
weekend as crew.
Riders and crew will spend the entire weekend taking part in this event, including camping overnight at
Pukekohe, so let's hope for fine dry weather for them all.
We would love it if you would like to come and support us during the ride. The ride is this Saturday and Sunday,
and you can check out the route on the Conquer Cancer website. Some of our students have also produced
some fantastic posters which will be lining the route to spur the riders on.
To find the route, go to www.conquercancer.org.nz Click 2014, then Event Details and Schedule. Click on Rider,
then The Route, and find the best vantage point for your family. We would so love to see some familiar faces.
Thank you all so much for supporting us in this event. We absolutely couldn't have reached our $15,000 target
without you.
Sports News
Senior Athletics Day: On Wednesday our Year 5-8 students took part in the annual school athletics day held at
Glover Park. The weather forecast was not looking flash, but fortunately the rain didn’t arrive until the
afternoon and we were able to do all the activities. We had some awesome results and the children who will
represent our school at the Eastern Zone athletics competition on Thursday 27th November will have a
permission slip sent home.
Year 7/8 Eastern Zone Touch Tournament: On Tuesday 4th November 29 of our Year 7 and 8 students
competed at the Eastern Zone Touch Tournament at Glover Park against 36 teams from various schools in the
area. Our three teams competed well in all of their pool games. Dilworth took out the Boys Grade, Baradene
took out the Girls Grade and Tamaki took out the Mixed Grade. A huge thank you to all the parents who helped
with transport and/or the teams on the day. Our teams' participation in the tournament would not have been
possible without your help.
Parent Help: Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered with our sports team. We really appreciate
your help, whether it is with transporting teams to and from venues, helping to set up activities or coaching /
managing children at events. We cannot take part in tournaments without parent assistance and in the past we
have had to cancel participation due to lack of parent help.
Sailing: Well done to William B Year 7 who placed 2nd and 4th respectively out of 53 sailors, in the Green Fleet at
the North Island Optimist Championships in Taupo last weekend. Congratulation’s.
Montessori Market Day
Well done to the Year 3 Montessori students who raised $816 at their market day. This money was donated to
the Ride to Conquer Cancer team.
Parents’ Association
School Fair: Everything is coming along really well for the Fair, the countdown is certainly on. Thank you all so
much for helping out, whether it has been sponsorship, donating items for the raffle baskets, volunteering your
time, collecting items or selling raffle tickets, all your help is really appreciated. We are still DESPERATE for
helpers, we need people to run stalls, set up stalls prior to the day and help pack up at the end of the event.
Please could you fill out the help appeal form that was sent home or pop into the office to get another, or text
Karyn 021 378 666. It will only be for an hour or 2 so you will still get to enjoy the Fair with your children. We
really cannot do this without the support of all the families.
Cake Boxes: The cake boxes have been sent home today, these are for cake, cookies, delicious treats and slice
donations for the fair. Could all cake stall donations be delivered to the hall foyer on Friday 21st November. Our
cake stall has always been a huge success, and we are hoping that this year it is better than ever. We would also
appreciate anyone who can help package and set out our cake stall on Friday morning. If you can pop into the
foyer and offer your assistance that would be great.
Calling all dads, big brothers, uncles, granddads and mobile muscles! We need man power on Monday 17th
November 5.30pm until it’s too dark to see! (turn up anytime, for as little or as long as you can offer) We will be
unloading the container and setting up the hall with the items for the white elephant.
White Elephant: The final white elephant drop off day is tomorrow, Saturday 15th November 2pm – 4pm.
We accept books, toys, clothes, furniture and household items. Have a last minute spring clean, look in the
garage or clear out your clothes, what a perfect excuse to declutter your home!
Frosty Friday: Please note that we will not have the Frosty Friday treats next week Friday 21st November, so
children can save their $2 for the fair.
Meeting: Last PA meeting for the year is Thursday 20th November 7.30pm in the staffroom. All welcome to
attend, we would love to have some new parents join our friendly team.
Library
Thank you to the Jiang Family and the Ju Family for donating Chinese and Korean books to our School Library.
These are very much appreciated.
Community Notices
• Glendowie Boating Club’s next school holiday Learn-to-sail programme runs from 19 - 23 January 2015.
Two courses are being held: mornings from 09:00 to 12:30; and afternoons from 13:00 to 16:30 daily.
The programme is a great introduction for boys and girls keen to begin an exciting lifetime of sailing. The
cost of the course is $330.00 per sailor and includes the use of a club optimist dinghy and coaching fees.
For registration and info go to http://www.gbcyachting.org.nz or email admin@gbcyachting.org.nz
• Tamaki Sports Academy Free Metal Collection: offers mentoring, coaching, and work experience
to South Auckland youth who have dropped out of the mainstream school system but show some
sporting talent. A major fundraiser for the academy, and an excellent source of work experience for our
members, is the free metal collection service we offer. We will pick up any old metal computers, whiteware, roofing iron, metal piping, venetian blinds, batteries, car panels, cars, metal
shelving, filing cabinets, machinery, lawnmowers, engines, and so on. If you do have any metal rubbish
to get rid of, we are keen to pick it up for you. It is a win-win for both of us. Thank you to everyone in
advance, and to those who have donated metal to us previously.
• SUMMER HOLIDAYS! WHAT’S ON AT ST HELIERS LIBRARY? “Dare to Explore’ is a popular fun, friendly &
flexible library programme designed to encourage the love of books and reading mileage over the long
holiday break. Primary school children are kept motivated as they read and record their drawings,
designs, mind maps in their cool folders. Register online or in our library from Saturday 6th December
and enjoy the ‘Out of this World’ experiences and Magician Show.
• Christmas Tree Fundraiser: The Sacred Heart Water Polo teams are fundraising for trips next year by
selling Christmas Trees. Fliers are available at the school office or call Kate at 021 707270. Pick up will be
from Sacred Heart College on Saturday 6th December.
Board of Trustees Health Consultation 2014
Our requirement as part of the Education Act is to consult the community every two years, to update our statement
on the delivery of the Health Curriculum. As such we would like you to review the current School Health Statement
and Curriculum Content Objectives. The health units and programmes are on our website: www.glendowie.school.nz
In consultation with management, the Board’s responsibility is to: Resource this curriculum area, ensure professional
development has been provided for the teachers, ensure the teaching and learning programmes cover the School
Curriculum Content Objectives (which were identified as our priories by our parent community).
For your information, we attach: Our school procedures for delivering the health curriculum, an overview of our
current health programme with its sequential and relevant learning at each level, the School Health Statement and
Curriculum Content Objectives for your comment.
*We would like our parent community to either agree to the School Health Statement and Curriculum Content
Objectives, and in this case no response is needed or to recommend alterations. The Board will consider any
comments which arise from this consultation process.
The process of consultation will be:
(a) Time of response – one week.
(b) Responses to be returned by Friday 21st November to the office or emailed to office@glendowie.school.nz
(c) Data will be collated by the BOT and the community will be advised of the results.
(d) Changes will be implemented (if required).
(e) The Board will adopt the revised school statement if changes are implemented on the delivery of the curriculum
Draft School Health Statement
Delivering the Health Curriculum
Glendowie Primary will implement a programme of health education based on the NZ curriculum.
The focus of the programme will be to give our students the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to enjoy a healthy
life-style. We will encourage them to recognize the contribution they can make in helping to become purposeful
citizens who will contribute to a caring community by identifying environmental factors and social influences, within
the social context of people’s lives.
Our approach to delivering the curriculum will be to follow the direction of learning in the national curriculum and
the Primary Years Programme of the International Baccalaureate (PYP). These programmes will make a difference to
the pupil’s well-being and the well-being of their communities. The health programmes will be aligned to the PYP and
its focus on the development of the whole child addressing the social, physical, emotional and cultural needs. The
delivery of the curriculum involves the following:
•
The six-transdisciplinary themes of the PYP are explored through the units of inquiry and across each year level,
and become the means through which our health topics are mainly delivered.
•
The PYP transdisciplinary skills of healthy lifestyle, codes of behaviour, and healthy choices compliment the units
of inquiry focused on health.
•
The PYP attitudes of empathy, respects, tolerance and integrity support our healthy well-being programme.
•
The student profile attributes of students being well balanced, principled and caring, contribute to the
development of the whole child.
Part of our consultation requirement is to inform parents on the way in which the school implements health and
sexuality education programmes. Our health programmes have a holistic approach that include attitudes, values, a
socio-ecological perspective and health promotion. These integrate with the following strands and key areas of
learning: Personal Health and Physical Development, Movement Concepts and Motor skills, Relationships with Other
People, Healthy Communicates and Environments
There are seven key areas of learning: mental health, sexuality education, food and nutrition, body care and physical
safety, physical activity, sport studies and outdoor education.
Sexuality education is considered as being a core part of every person and it contributes to each individual’s selfimage, their sense of self-worth and their relationships with other people. These have been integrated through the
units of inquiry across all year levels with the implementation of puberty studies taught from Year 6.
Our health programmes must also focus on the curriculum content objectives as confirmed through previous
community consultation and which is part of our Curriculum Plan. Our health programme overview is inclusive of
these curriculum objectives and shows the programmes the children will study as appropriate to each year level. The
budget will reflect the level of financial resourcing and professional development needed to implement the
programmes, including using a wide range of learning experiences to support the teaching and learning objectives.
The objectives will be reviewed as part of the major and minor focus of self-review, which are reported on, to the
Board of Trustees. Our latest review was November 2012
Curriculum Content Objectives. Children enjoy learning to: develop healthy practices of making informed choices,
considering consequences, develop coping skills and managing personal feelings, to practice and know how to act in
the event of an emergency.
Children enjoy learning to focus on the following; self-esteem, peer pressure, concern for others, assisting student in
making informed choices, developing sense of caution about personal safety, healthy eating, knowledge and care of
the body including fitness, a healthy environment promoting a healthy lifestyle; health and safety agencies in the
community